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Audio codec

 
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: audio codec
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(1) A hardware circuit that converts analog voice into PCM or ADPCM digital code and vice versa. The term may refer to only the A/D and D/A conversion, or it may include the compression technique for further reducing the signal (definition #2 below). See sampling and codec.

(2) Hardware and/or software that compresses and decompresses a PCM or ADPCM digital audio signal. If the codec is specialized for human voice, it is known as a "speech codec," "voice codec" or "vocoder" (see speech codec). See audio compression, perceptual audio coding, codec examples and G. standards.

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Wikipedia: Audio codec
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The term audio codec has two meanings, both referring to something that encodes and decodes. The term codec is a combination of 'coder-decoder'.

In software, a codec is a computer program that compresses/decompresses digital audio data according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. The object of a codec algorithm is to represent the high-fidelity audio signal with minimum number of bits while retaining the quality. This can effectively reduce the storage space and the bandwidth required for transmission of the stored audio file. Most codecs are implemented as libraries which interface to one or more multimedia players, such as QuickTime Player, XMMS, Winamp, VLC media player, MPlayer or Windows Media Player.

In hardware, the term "audio codec" refers to a single device that encodes analog audio as digital signals and vice versa. This is used in sound cards that support both audio in and out, for instance.

See also



v • d • e
Data compression methods
Lossless
RLE · Byte pair encoding · DEFLATE · Lempel–Ziv (LZ77/78 · LZSS · LZW · LZWL · LZO · LZMA · LZX · LZRW · LZJB · LZT)
Others
CTW · BWT · PPM · DMC
Audio
Audio codec parts
LPC (LAR · LSP) · WLPC · CELP · ACELP · A-law · μ-law · ADPCM · DPCM · MDCT · Fourier transform · Psychoacoustic model
Others
Image
Terms
Methods
RLE · Fractal · Wavelet · EZW · SPIHT · LP · DCT · Chain code · KLT
Others
Video
Terms
Others
See Compression Formats and Standards for formats and Compression Software Implementations for codecs


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